User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
NAME
nvidia-settings - configure the NVIDIA graphics driver
SYNOPSIS
nvidia-settings [options]
nvidia-settings [options] --no-config
nvidia-settings [options] --load-config-only
nvidia-settings [options] {--query=attr | --assign=attr
nvidia-settings [options] --glxinfo
Options: [-vh] [--config=configfile] [-c ctrl-display]
[--verbose={errors | warnings | all}]
[--describe={all | list | attribute_name}]
attr has the form:DISPLAY/attribute_name[display_devices]
DESCRIPTION
The nvidia-settings utility is a tool for configuring the
NVIDIA graphics driver. It operates by communicating with the NVIDIA X driver, querying and updating state asappropriate. This communication is done via the NV-CONTROL,
GLX, XVideo, and RandR X extensions.Values such as brightness and gamma, XVideo attributes, tem-
perature, and OpenGL settings can be queried and configuredvia nvidia-settings.
When nvidia-settings starts, it reads the current settings
from its configuration file and sends those settings to the X server. Then, it displays a graphical user interface (GUI) for configuring the current settings. Whennvidia-settings exits, it queries the current settings from
the X server and saves them to the configuration file. OPTIONS-v, --version
Print the nvidia-settings version and exit.
-h, --help
Print usage information and exit.--config=config
Use the configuration file config rather than thedefault ~/.nvidia-settings-rc
-c, --ctrl-display=ctrl-display
Control the specified X display. If this option is notgiven, then nvidia-settings will control the display
specified by --display. If that is not given, then the
$DISPLAY environment variable is used.
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User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
-n, --no-config
Do not load the configuration file. This mode ofoperation is useful if nvidia-settings has difficulties
starting due to problems with applying settings in the configuration file.-l, --load-config-only
Load the configuration file, send the values specifiedtherein to the X server, and exit. This mode of opera-
tion is useful to place in your .xinitrc file, for example.-r, --rewrite-config-file
Write the current X server configuration to the confi-
guration file, and exit without starting a graphicaluser interface. See the EXAMPLES section.
-V, --verbose=verbosity
Controls how much information is printed. By default, the verbosity is errors and only error messages are printed. verbosity can be one of the following values:errors - Print errors.
warnings - Print errors and warnings.
all - Print errors, warnings, and other informa-
tion.-a, --assign=assign
The assign argument to the --assign command line option
is of the form: {DISPLAY}/{attribute name}[{display devices}]={value} This assigns the attribute {attribute name} to the value {value} on the X Display {DISPLAY}. {DISPLAY} follows the usual {host}:{display}.{screen} syntax of the DISPLAY environment variable and is optional; when it is not specified, then it is implied following thesame rule as the --ctrl-display option. If the X
screen is not specified, then the assignment is made to all X screens. Note that the '/' is only required when {DISPLAY} is present.{DISPLAY} can additionally include a target specifica-
tion to direct an assignment to something other than an X screen. A target specification is contained within brackets and consists of a target type name, a colon, and the target id. The target type name can be one of screen, gpu, framelock, vcs, gvi, or fan; the target id is the index into the list of targets (for that target type). The target specification can be used innvidia-settings 256.44Last change: 2010-07-29 2
User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
{DISPLAY} wherever an X screen can be used, followingthe syntax {host}:{display}[{target_type}:{target_id}].
See the output ofnvidia-settings --query all
for information on which target types can be used with which attributes. See the output ofnvidia-settings -q screens -q gpus -q framelocks -q vcs -q gvis -q fans
for lists of targets for each target type. The [{display devices}] portion is also optional; if it is not specified, then the attribute is assigned to all display devices. Some examples:-a FSAA=5
-a localhost:0.0/DigitalVibrance[CRT-0]=0
--assign="SyncToVBlank=1"
-a [gpu:0]/DigitalVibrance[DFP-1]=63
-q, --query=query
The query argument to the --query command line option
is of the form: {DISPLAY}/{attribute name}[{display devices}]This queries the current value of the attribute {attri-
bute name} on the X Display {DISPLAY}. The syntax isthe same as that for the --assign option, without
={value}. Specify -q screens, -q gpus, -q framelocks,
-q vcs, -q gvis, or -q fans to query a list of X
screens, GPUs, Frame Lock devices, Visual Computing Systems, SDI Input Devices, or fans, respectively, thatare present on the X Display {DISPLAY}. Specify -q all
to query all attributes.-t, --terse
When querying attribute values with the '--query' com-
mand line option, only print the current value, rather than the more verbose description of the attribute, its valid values, and its current value.-d, --display-device-string
When printing attribute values in response to the '--
query' option, if the attribute value is a display dev-
ice mask, print the value as a list of display devices(e.g., "CRT-0, DFP-0"), rather than a hexadecimal bit
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User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
mask (e.g., 0x00010001).-g, --glxinfo
Print GLX Information for the X display and exit.-e, --describe
Prints information about a particular attribute.Specify 'all' to list the descriptions of all attri-
butes. Specify 'list' to list the attribute names without a descriptions. USER GUIDE Contents1. Layout of the nvidia-settings GUI
2. How OpenGL Interacts with nvidia-settings
3. Loading Settings Automatically 4. Command Line Interface 5. X Display Names in the Config File 6. Connecting to Remote X Servers 7. Licensing 8. TODO1. Layout of the nvidia-settings GUI
The nvidia-settings GUI is organized with a list of dif-
ferent categories on the left side. Only one entry in thelist can be selected at once, and the selected category con-
trols which "page" is displayed on the right side of thenvidia-settings GUI.
The category list is organized in a tree: each X screen con-
tains the relevant subcategories beneath it. Similarly, the Display Devices category for a screen contains all the enabled display devices beneath it. Besides each X screen,the other top level category is "nvidia-settings Configura-
tion", which configures behavior of the nvidia-settings
application itself.Along the bottom of the nvidia-settings GUI, from left to
right, is: 1) a status bar which indicates the most recently altered option; 2) a Help button that toggles the display of a help window which provides a detailed explanation of the available options in the current page; and3) a Quit button to exit nvidia-settings.
Most options throughout nvidia-settings are applied immedi-
ately. Notable exceptions are OpenGL options which are only read by OpenGL when an OpenGL application starts.nvidia-settings 256.44Last change: 2010-07-29 4
User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
Details about the options on each page of nvidia-settings
are available in the help window.2. How OpenGL Interacts with nvidia-settings
When an OpenGL application starts, it downloads the current values from the X driver, and then reads the environment (see APPENDIX E: OPENGL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE SETTINGS in the README). Settings from the X server override OpenGL's default values, and settings from the environment override values from the X server. For example, by default OpenGL uses the FSAA setting requested by the application (normally, applications do not request any FSAA). An FSAA setting specified innvidia-settings would override the OpenGL application's
request. Similarly, the __GL_FSAA_MODE environment variable
will override the application's FSAA setting, as well as anyFSAA setting specified in nvidia-settings.
Note that an OpenGL application only retrieves settings from the X server when it starts, so if you make a change to anOpenGL value in nvidia-settings, it will only apply to
OpenGL applications which are started after that point in time. 3. Loading Settings Automatically The NVIDIA X driver does not preserve values set withnvidia-settings between runs of the X server (or even
between logging in and logging out of X, with xdm(1), gdm, or kdm ). This is intentional, because different users may have different preferences, thus these settings are storedon a per-user basis in a configuration file stored in the
user's home directory.The configuration file is named ~/.nvidia-settings-rc. You
can specify a different configuration file name with the--config command line option.
After you have run nvidia-settings once and have generated a
configuration file, you can then run:nvidia-settings --load-config-only
at any time in the future to upload these settings to the Xserver again. For example, you might place the above com-
mand in your ~/.xinitrc file so that your settings are applied automatically when you log in to X. Your .xinitrc file, which controls what X applications should be started when you log into X (or startx), might look something like this:nvidia-settings 256.44Last change: 2010-07-29 5
User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
nvidia-settings --load-config-only &
xterm & evilwm or:nvidia-settings --load-config-only &
gnome-session
If you do not already have an ~/.xinitrc file, then chancesare that xinit(1) is using a system-wide xinitrc file. This
system wide file is typically here:/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
To use it, but also have nvidia-settings upload your set-
tings, you could create an ~/.xinitrc with the contents:nvidia-settings --load-config-only &
. /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc System administrators may choose to place the
nvidia-settings load command directly in the system xinitrc
script.Please see the xinit(1) man page for further details of con-
figuring your ~/.xinitrc file. 4. Command Line Interfacenvidia-settings has a rich command line interface: all
attributes that can be manipulated with the GUI can also be queried and set from the command line. The command line syntax for querying and assigning attributes matches that ofthe .nvidia-settings-rc configuration file.
The --query option can be used to query the current value of
attributes. This will also report the valid values for theattribute. You can run nvidia-settings --query all for a
complete list of available attributes, what the current value is, what values are valid for the attribute, and through which target types (e.g., X screens, GPUs) the attributes can be addressed. Additionally, individual attributes may be specified like this:nvidia-settings --query CursorShadow
Attributes that may differ per display device (for example, DigitalVibrance can be set independently on each display device when in TwinView) can be appended with a "display device name" within brackets; e.g.:nvidia-settings --query DigitalVibrance[CRT-0]
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If an attribute is display device specific, but the query does not specify a display device, then the attribute value for all display devices will be queried. An attribute name may be prepended with an X Display name and a forward slash to indicate a different X Display; e.g.:nvidia-settings --query localhost:0.0/DigitalVibrance[DFP-1]
An attribute name may also just be prepended with the screen number and a forward slash:nvidia-settings --query 0/DigitalVibrance[DFP-1]
in which case the default X Display will be used, but you can indicate to which X screen to direct the query (if yourX server has multiple X screens). If no X screen is speci-
fied, then the attribute value will be queried for all X screens.Attributes can be addressed through "target types". A tar-
get type indicates the object that is queried when you query an attribute. The default target type is an X screen, but other possible target types are GPUs, Frame Lock devices, Visual Computing Systems, SDI Input Devices, and fans. Target types give you different granularities with which to perform queries and assignments. Since X screens can spanmultiple GPUs (in the case of Xinerama, or SLI), and multi-
ple X screens can exist on the same GPU, it is sometimes useful to address attributes by GPU rather than X screen.A target specification is contained within brackets and con-
sists of a target type name, a colon, and the target id. The target type name can be one of screen, gpu, framelock, vcs, gvi, or fan; the target id is the index into the list of targets (for that target type). Target specifications can be used wherever an X screen is used in query and assignment commands; the target specification can be used either by itself on the left side of the forward slash, or as part of an X Display name. For example, the following queries address X screen 0 on the localhost:nvidia-settings --query 0/VideoRam
nvidia-settings --query localhost:0.0/VideoRam
nvidia-settings --query [screen:0]/VideoRam
nvidia-settings --query localhost:0[screen:0]/VideoRam
To address GPU 0 instead, you can use either of:nvidia-settings 256.44Last change: 2010-07-29 7
User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
nvidia-settings --query [gpu:0]/VideoRam
nvidia-settings --query localhost:0[gpu:0]/VideoRam
See the output ofnvidia-settings --query all
for what targets types can be used with each attribute. See the output ofnvidia-settings --query screens --query gpus --query framelocks --query vcs --query gvis --query fans
for lists of targets for each target type.The --assign option can be used to assign a new value to an
attribute. The valid values for an attribute are reportedwhen the attribute is queried. The syntax for --assign is
the same as --query, with the additional requirement that
assignments also have an equal sign and the new value. For example:nvidia-settings --assign FSAA=2
nvidia-settings --assign 0/DigitalVibrance[CRT-1]=9
nvidia-settings --assign [gpu:0]/DigitalVibrance=0
Multiple queries and assignments may be specified on thecommand line for a single invocation of nvidia-settings.
If either the --query or --assign options are passed to
nvidia-settings, the GUI will not be presented, and
nvidia-settings will exit after processing the assignments
and/or queries. In this case, settings contained within the~/.nvidia-settings-rc configuration file will not be
automatically uploaded to the X server, nor will the~/.nvidia-settings-rc configuration file be automatically
updated to reflect attribute assignments made via the--assign option.
5. X Display Names in the In the Command Line Interface section above, it was noted that you can specify an attribute without any X Display qualifiers, with only an X screen qualifier, or with a full X Display name. For example:nvidia-settings --query FSAA
nvidia-settings --query 0/FSAA
nvidia-settings --query stravinsky.nvidia.com:0/FSAA
In the first two cases, the default X Display will be used, in the second case, the screen from the default X Display can be overridden, and in the third case, the entire default X Display can be overridden.nvidia-settings 256.44Last change: 2010-07-29 8
User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
The same possibilities are available in the~/.nvidia-settings-rc configuration file.
For example, in a computer lab environment, you might log into any of multiple workstations, and your home directory is NFS mounted to each workstation. In such a situation,you might want your ~/.nvidia-settings-rc file to be appli-
cable to all the workstations. Therefore, you would not want your config file to qualify each attribute with an X Display Name. Leave the "Include X Display Names in theConfig File" option unchecked on the nvidia-settings Confi-
guration page (this is the default). There may be cases when you do want attributes in the config file to be qualified with the X Display name. If you know what you are doing and want config file attributes to be qualified with an X Display, check the "Include X DisplayNames in the Config File" option on the nvidia-settings Con-
figuration page.In the typical home user environment where your home direc-
tory is local to one computer and you are only configuringone X Display, then it does not matter whether each attri-
bute setting is qualified with an X Display Name. 6. Connecting to Remote X Serversnvidia-settings is an X client, but uses two separate X con-
nections: one to display the GUI, and another to communicatethe NV-CONTROL requests. These two X connections do not
need to be to the same X server. For example, you might runnvidia-settings on the computer stravinsky.nvidia.com,
export the display to the computer bartok.nvidia.com, but be configuring the X server on the computer schoenberg.nvidia.com:nvidia-settings --display=bartok.nvidia.com:0 \
--ctrl-display=schoenberg.nvidia.com:0
If --ctrl-display is not specified, then the X Display to
control is what --display indicates. If --display is also
not specified, then the $DISPLAY environment variable is
used.Note, however, that you will need to have X permissions con-
figured such that you can establish an X connection from thecomputer on which you are running nvidia-settings
(stravinsky.nvidia.com) to the computer where you are displaying the GUI (bartok.nvidia.com) and the computer whose X Display you are configuring (schoenberg.nvidia.com). The simplest, most common, and least secure mechanism to do this is to use 'xhost' to allow access from the computer onnvidia-settings 256.44Last change: 2010-07-29 9
User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
which you are running nvidia-settings.
(issued from bartok.nvidia.com) xhost +stravinsky.nvidia.com (issued from schoenberg.nvidia.com) xhost +stravinsky.nvidia.com This will allow all X clients run on stravinsky.nvidia.com to connect and display on bartok.nvidia.com's X server and configure schoenberg.nvidia.com's X server. Please see the xauth(1) and xhost(1) man pages, or refer toyour system documentation on remote X applications and secu-
rity. You might also Google for terms such as "remote X security" or "remote X Windows", and see documents such asthe Remote X Apps mini-HOWTO:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Remote-X-Apps.html
Please also note that the remote X server to be controlled must be using the NVIDIA X driver. 7. LicensingThe source code to nvidia-settings is released as GPL. The
most recent official version of the source code is available here:ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-settings/
Note that nvidia-settings is simply an NV-CONTROL client.
It uses the NV-CONTROL X extension to communicate with the
NVIDIA X server to query current settings and make changes to settings.You can make additions directly to nvidia-settings, or write
your own NV-CONTROL client, using nvidia-settings as an
example.Documentation on the NV-CONTROL extension and additional
sample clients are available in the nvidia-settings source
tarball. Patches can be submitted to linux-bugs@nvidia.com.
8. TODOThere are many things still to be added to nvidia-settings,
some of which include:- different toolkits? The GUI for nvidia-settings is
cleanly abstracted from the back-end of nvidia-settings
that parses the configuration file and command line, communicates with the X server, etc. If someone wereso inclined, a different front-end GUI could be
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User Commands nvidia-settings(1)
implemented.- write a design document explaining how nvidia-settings
is designed; presumably this would make it easier for people to become familiar with the code base. If there are other things you would like to see added (or better yet, would like to add yourself), please contactlinux-bugs@nvidia.com.
FILES~/.nvidia-settings-rc
EXAMPLES
nvidia-settings
Starts the nvidia-settings graphical interface.
nvidia-settings --load-config-only
Loads the settings stored in ~/.nvidia-settings-rc and
exits.nvidia-settings --rewrite-config-file
Writes the current X server configuration to~/.nvidia-settings-rc file and exits.
nvidia-settings --query FSAA
Query the value of the full-screen antialiasing set-
ting.--assign
nvidia-settings --assign RedGamma=2.0 --assign BlueGamma=2.0
Set the gamma of the screen to 2.0. AUTHOR Aaron Plattner NVIDIA CorporationSEE ALSO
nvidia-xconfig(1)
COPYRIGHT Copyright cO 2010 NVIDIA Corporation.nvidia-settings 256.44Last change: 2010-07-29 11